Poems of Love and Ageing
In a 2024 interview, Belfast poet Michael Longley talks with Olivia O'Leary about his love poems and looks back on sixty years of poetry.
Irish poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes.
He is recognised as a very fine love poet and in this episode of Michael Longley's Life of Poetry, first broadcast in 2024, he reads poems that address the gift of a decades-long love and marriage and the inevitability of ageing. After a lifetime dedicated to poetry, he says, 'I can't imagine that I would be alive now if I hadn't had poetry propelling me forward.'
He reads his poems The Pattern, The Linen Industry and Age from his collection Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024, and Foam from his collection The Slain Birds.
Presenter: Olivia O'Leary
Producer: Claire Cunningham
Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins
Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for 大象传媒 Radio 3.
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- Fri 12 Jul 2024 21:45大象传媒 Radio 3
- Fri 14 Feb 2025 21:45大象传媒 Radio 3
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